Resistance: The Gathering Storm
Resistance: The Gathering Storm is a science fiction novel based on the ''Resistance'' series, and is written by William C. Dietz. It details Nathan Hale's experience months following the events that unfolded in Iceland, which detailed Hale's original mission with the SRPA shortly after his "departure" from Britain, and focusing on a presidential conspiracy during the height of the Chimeran War. It was released in April 28th, 2009. Product Description The following description has been detailed for release on the book; "Great Britain. July 1951. Three years ago, Russia went dark. Nothing got in. Nothing got out. The world assumed it was political strife. But it was the Chimera: voracious extraterrestrial invaders. And in December 1949, they burst across the Russian border and poured into Europe. The luckiest humans died. The less fortunate succumbed to an alien virus-and changed. Within a year, most of Europe had fallen. Only Great Britain, after struggling desperately, had kept the conquerors at bay. But as the Chimera were repelled, they were evolving. Building. Planning. America. November 1952. The Chimera have crossed the Atlantic. Their lightning strikes on American borders are devastating. Cities are lost. Small towns overrun. Citizens transformed into monstrosities. Enter Lieutenant Nathan Hale, U.S. Ranger. A veteran of the Chimeran conflict, he is uniquely immune to the alien virus. And when regular troops can't stem the Chimeran onslaught, Hale and his special-operations team meet the menace head-on. But while they battle the relentless Chimera, deadly power games rage in the White House. And when Hale discovers a far-reaching conspiracy, one with deadly consequences for the human race, his allegiance to country and mankind is stretched to the breaking point." Synopsis Setting The Gathering Storm takes place four months after the events in Resistance: Fall of Man, beginning from November to December, 1951. The parasitic alien race known as the Chimera, having conquered most of Europe and Asia, have already begun to invade North America and are threatening to encroach into the United States. Much of northern America has already fallen to the Chimera for which the US armed forces were forced to pull back from in order to defend lands untouched by the Chimera near the still-in construction Liberty Defense Perimeter. Under the leadership of Noah Grace, who has become increasingly totalitarian and megalomaniacal, the current administration is instituting increasingly tighter control of the United States which has become very unpopular to the American public. As a result several resistance groups, the most prominent being Freedom First, violently opposed both the Chimera and the Grace administration. Characters The protagonist of The Gathering Storm is Nathan Hale. The story follows his exploits months after his extraction in Britain and subsequent recruitment into the Sentinel Program with the rank of Second Lieutenant. Dr. Cassandra "Cassie" Aklin, an Army-employed psychologist supporting SRPA and the protagonist in ''Resistance 2'''s alternate reality game Project Abraham, is assigned to a team of psychologists treating the Sentinels and is revealed to be Hale's love interest (which had been hinted at during the Project Abraham website videos). Major Richard Blake and the Chimeran entity Daedalus from Resistance 2 are introduced alongside Noah Grace, the President of the United States, and his Vice President Harvey McCullen who were previously mentioned in the backstory of the Resistance universe. Susan Farley, who was mentioned in Project Abraham, is Nathan Hale's foster sister and only surviving relative. Plot The novel primarily focuses on the decisions of President Noah Grace, who realizing the inevitable fact that his nation will fall to the Chimera, announces to his Cabinet his plan to implement a compromise known as Project Omega. This compromise calls for a negotiation between the United States and the Chimera - through the former the human turn Chimera, Jordan Shepherd, now known as Daedalus. Grace reasons that his decision is a necessary act to spare the United States from the horrors of the Chimeran War at the expense of the world (as the plan calls for the withdraw of all American forces from the conflict). Furthermore, Grace, privately, intends the negotiations to save himself, and only himself. This decision is met with disgust and outrage from Grace's Secretary of War Henry Walker, who recognizes this as treason and secretly records Grace's plans. After Project Omega is accepted by Grace's Cabinet, Walker flees with his wife to join the resistance group Freedom First in Chimera-occupied Chicago in order to expose Project Omega; however, while en-route to the city the Walkers are captured by the Chimera and taken to a mining pit in Wisconsin, alongside other human prisoners, that is being used as a conversion center. Grace becomes aware of Henry Walker's absence and orders a manhunt to find Walker, dead or alive. The search for Walker is led by Chief of Staff William Dentweiler, who is also in charge of Daedalus's capture. Meanwhile, Nathan Hale returns to his adopted home in South Dakota, now in Gray Territory, to learn the fate of his foster family. Unfortunately, he soon discovered that his entire family was killed during the invasion save for his foster sister, Susan Farley, who has escaped the slaughter. Following his fore-naught search, Hale and his unit Echo Team are ordered to find Walker on the basis that the former Secretary of War is betraying his species to the Chimera. Following a lead in Chicago, they contact Freedom First, only learn that Walker didn't make it Freedom First. Still unaware of Walker's capture by the Chimera, Hale is sent by SRPA to infiltrate a Freedom First training camp in Montana in order to hopefully find Walker's whereabouts, but is outed when he is recognized by Susan, who has joined Freedom First. Hale is released on good terms for previously fighting alongside Freedom First in Chicago, and leaves empty handed with out a clue where Walker is. Susan also refuses to come with Hale as she has decided to remain with Freedom First due to her disenchantment with the Grace administration and it's increasingly totalitarian nature. Meanwhile, William Dentweiler successfully captures Daedalus by luring him to rescue his wife Hannah from torture by government agents. He is then brought to a military base near Sheridan, Wyoming under the threat of electrocution, to prevent his escape and establish his cooperation. With the news of Daedalus's capture, President Grace decides to carry out a "Victory Tour" in the American heartland from the nation's temporarily capital Denver (after Washington, D.C. was struck by a Spire attack). At this moment, Susan and another Freedom First rebel plot to take advantage of the Victory Tour to assassinate the President. As Grace prepares a speech in front of Denver's Capitol, Susan prepares to shoot Grace but is spotted by Hale, the leader of a Sentinel security detachment for the President, prevents the assassination and leading to Susan's immediate arrest. In Wisconsin, Henry Walker - who has lost his wife - and the other prisoners make an escape attempt through the buildings escape tunnels. Only a few prisoners make it out of the pit, among them Harley Burl, who befriended Walker, was able to escape to American territory and inform the SRPA about Walker's location. A Sentinel strike force is deployed to the mining pit. Hale joins the strike force alongside of Burl and William Dentweiler, the latter having insisted on coming along to ensure Walker's death. After rescuing the prisoners, Burl learns from them that Walker has been taken and converted. He then informs Hale about what he learned from Walker about Project Omega and the recordings he possessed. Hale detains Dentweiler and ordered his Sentinels to search for Walker. However, they are set upon by more Chimeran forces, during the battle Dentweiler escapes and flees to the conversion center. Hale and several Sentinels enters the center and find the Chief of Staff, cocooned. Dentweiler is then euthanize and Walker's recordings are salvaged. After learning the full disclosure of Project Omega through Walker's recording, Hale travels to Sheridan where Grace had arrived to negotiate the terms with Daedalus. Hale, as head of the SRPA Sentinel detachment of the president's security team, easily accesses the chamber Grace is interrogating Shepherd in and, instead of killing Daedalus when he has the chance, he shoots Grace in the head with his rifle - killing him. Daedalus immediately takes advantage of Grace's death and breaks free of his confinement by sending out a mental blast and paralyzing every human being within the vicinity. He then escaped to an awaiting battlecruiser - which had earlier entered American airspace as part of the truce - before ordering it to destroy Sheridan and its surroundings in retaliation for his imprisonment. Shortly thereafter, Hale is pardon from being responsible for Grace's death and ends with his superior Major Richard Blake planning on notifying Vice President Harvey McCullen of his sudden succession. Plot Development The book expands details on key characters; most notably Nathan Hale, Noah Grace, and Jordan Shepherd. Other storylines are expanded upon as well, and some unanswered questions are revealed. Revelations include: * Hale holds the rank of Second Lieutenant. * Hale is one of the original Sentinels. * Hale is infamous throughout SRPA, despite his attempts to keep a low profile, not only due to him being among the few survivors of the American force sent to Britain, but because of what happened to him and what he did to liberate the country. * Hale's entire foster family, other than his foster sister - Susan Farley, are all dead: killed by the Chimera. * Cassie Aklin, still working as an Army-employed psychologist supporting SRPA, currently assigned to a team of psychologists treating the Sentinels, reconnects with Hale before his departure for Operation Iron Fist. * Aklin & Hale's relationship during Project Abraham (hinted at during the website videos) was strictly and clinically professional, but there was underlying tension between them. When they meet up in the general public, eventually Hale and Aklin become (secret) lovers * Aklin holds tremendous guilt over what Hale endured, and is still enduring, as a result of Project Abraham, where she was the one who got him involved with in the first place. * Richard Blake is revealed to be a Sentinel. * Blake is a member of the SRPA leadership; and so, while other officers are technically senior, he is generally the head of military operations. * Fyodor Malikov is one of the three co-founders of SRPA, and was the head of Project Abraham. * Operation Overstrike was mentioned: it confirms its official purpose was to destroy the hub tower in Paris, which doing so disrupted Chimera throughout Western Europe, but un-officially was to implement the virus to kill the Carriers and shut down the Conversion Centers, which succeeded. * Cartwright's name is mentioned as being "Stephen Cartwright" rather than "Steven Cartwright". * SRPA's designation is officially given as "Special Research Projects Administration". * While officially SRPA is classified top-secret, an increasingly larger number of the population know about its existence. * Jordan Shepherd is welcomed into the Chimera due to the shared belief that Shepherd is in control of, and can even manipulate, the Chimeran virus. * Jordan has the ability to send his consciousness to any and all Chimera type or unit on Earth (even having the ability to send it to several at once), while remaining linked to his body. * Jordan still possesses his human memories, primarily those of people who have significance to him (specifically his wife and Hale). * Jordan did not murder his wife; Hannah, as was implied in the comic book series. Instead, Jordan (because he did have blood on his hands later on) only murdered Mr. Hetterwood. * Hannah, like every other family member of soldiers drafted into the SRPA, was informed her husband was dead. She was informed of the truth, initially in a limited capacity - she discovered the true scope of it when she met Jordan as "Daedalus". She accepted it, however, having never lost her feelings for him. * The Chimera are still using Angels - but in a increasingly diminished capacity. * The Chimera species is explored - they describe their species as being part of a "great whole"; in which lesser units serve the larger ones. They also refer to themselves as "Chimera" (as well as the names given to them by humans e.g. Hybrids, Titans, Steelheads etc.) The Chimera, also, have a strong thirst for human blood. * The Chimera hub tower in Holar, Iceland; next to SRPA Station Igloo, is described as being the Chimera's headquarters on Earth. Reception Reception for Resistance: The Gathering Storm was generally mixed. The book was criticized for failing to bridge to the previous games and Dietz's characterization of Nathan Hale.[http://www.bigbadbob113.com/2009/07/21/book-review-resistance-gathering-storm/ BigBadBob's Blog: Resistance: The Gathering Storm] Trivia *Day 1 on the UK version of resistancefallofman.com is called 'The Gathering Storm' and it is probably where this book received it's title from. *The product description has a typo on the year 1952, in which it supposed to be 1951. Sources Category:Novels